Java and Justice
This position is one hundred percent consistent with
Starbucks’s visible commitment to diversity and inclusion---a policy that
permeates every sphere of Starbucks. The people who work there, the people who
consume coffee and food there, the people who sit for hours working,
socializing, and sometimes just having a place to go.
Starbucks is the place to find solitude and companionship.
Starbucks is where people go to write their books, find their mates, launch
their new businesses, plan their divorces, celebrate their promotions and
victories, and to cry with their friends.
When my marriage needs a little pick-me-up, we head to the
movies and Starbucks….After all, we can do both in the 3 hours that comprises
the amount of time that the baby will stay with a non-family member. There is
magic at Starbucks. Low lights, nice seating, bits and pieces of Italian
floating around, lending an aura of romance and adventure to the occasion.
Right now, I have friends for whom Starbucks is the staging
area for major events, unfolding life changes, and burgeoning careers. One
friend is writing a play. She is diligent, relentless, and remarkably talented.
She is also caffeinated. On any given day, she is writing her 20 pages,
blogging successfully, and generally being a good friend to me and her other
friends.
Another friend is running a small business amidst an intense
family challenge that is occurring in the background and greatly challenging
her family’s emotional resources. She is prevailing, tending gently an
determinedly to the needs of her family, and restoring herself and her sense of
well-being over cups of coffee and a nice window seat.
Starbucks represents the site of many different, often
intersecting, vibrant communities---and being part of a tight-knit community
can lead to better health and a longer life. A 10-year study found that older
people with a large circle of friends were 22% less likely to die during the
study period. Another study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2006, looked at what happened to
2,835 nurses with breast cancer based on their social networks. Compared with
women with strong social networks, women who were socially isolated were 66%
more likely to die (from any cause) and twice as likely to die from breast
cancer.
On any given day, I know that I can walk into Starbucks and
run into my friends, either alone, with each other, or with their kids. We can
work. We can play. We can hang out with our kids….all over a cup of coffee.
Comments
I can't tell if there's just nothing there to appreciate, or whether it's there and it's simply that I don't get it.
The poems are so rambling, so non-conventional, I feel like stopping half-way through each one. Was he on some drug? Was it that he was just bursting with these thoughts, that come out this way?
Half of me wants to resign myself to sit down and read this whole thing cover to cover, maybe with wine, to give it a chance of somehow coming into focus. The focus of meaning something to me, even if that is only that I can see the what was in the mind of the author.
On the other hand, maybe I should donate it to the library, some impressionable 17 year old who thinks everything means something might get it, somehow.
Imagine if libraries offered coffee? Hey, and who made the rule that there was to be no talking in the library? What a silly rule! People want to inter-act. Imagine what a hub of activity a library could be if you could only talk out loud. Does it really kill off the ability to read a book?
Maybe that is what Starbucks really is; a library with coffee talk. BYOBook.
A woman has a burglar break in and steal $10,000 and kill her. Everyone says; "what was she doing with that kind of money around the house?"
The movie stars the gorgeous Jennifer Lawrence (LOVE HER).
The Hunger Games may be the only book length book I've ever read in one day. Helter Skelter was like that, you just couldn't put it down. If you have not read H.S. and you need a good tear through 1000 pages book, that's the one. Even if you know the story well, it's still scary as hell.
Jennifer Lawrence (LOVE HER).
Got to go. All the Presidents Men is on TCM. William Goldman won an Oscar for the script. There's another good book; "Adventures in the Screen Trade" by W. Goldman. He won an Oscar for this movie as Best Adapted Screenplay and another Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for...Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There's a writer for ya. Also, Marathon Man was his book and screenplay, if you're scoring at home.